Well, this isn’t news we expected — or wanted — to be sharing this morning. Ronald D. Moore’s upcoming live-action God Of War series has been forced to make a major change to its line-up before filming has even finished on the first season of Prime Video’s ambitious videogame adaptation. Per Deadline’s reporting, the show is in search of a new Kratos after star Ryan Hurst, who had originally been cast as the iconic PlayStation character, sustained a major injury while shooting the Norse epic.
According to Deadline, the decision to replace Hurst — who had reportedly put on 40lbs of muscle and visibly undergone a major physical transformation to embody his godly role — came following painstaking consideration by the series’ co-producers, Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios. It is believed (and has been reported by TMZ) that former Sons Of Anarchy star Hurst tore his bicep while filming a stunt scene for the series last month. And while the actor has since successfully undergone surgery and is expected to make a full recovery, that recovery timeline (for a torn bicep you’re looking at half a year, and likely significantly longer, on the sideline) sadly has proven irreconcilable with God Of War’s strict production shooting schedule.
Deadline’s sources understand that four episodes of Moore’s series — which entered production in Vancouver back in February — had been fully shot at the time of Hurst’s injury, with the plan now being to regroup in mid-August ahead of an expected mid-October start on reshooting. Despite the devastating news that Hurst, currently able to be seen lighting up the big screen in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, will no longer feature in Prime Video’s God Of War, the rest of the streamer’s ‘god-and-his-boy’ Norse saga’s cast remain fully committed to carrying the torch. Callum Vinson is still on to play Kratos’ kid Atreus, while we can also continue to look forward to seeing Max Parker as Heimdall, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Teresa Palmer as Thor’s wife Phoebe/Sif, Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Danny Woodburn and Jeff Gulka as brothers Brok and Sindri, and Ed Skrein as Baldur.
At this stage, we’ve no word or even whisper yet regarding who could step into Ryan Hurst’s sizeable shoes as Kratos on Ronald D. Moore’s show, currently set for a minimum two-season run as Prime Video looks to go toe-to-toe with HBO’s The Last Of Us in the prestige drama game-to-series stakes. But as soon as we hear more, you’ll be the first to know. And until then, our best wishes are with Ryan Hurst for a full and speedy recovery.
